Yates & Yavalar Earn ODAC Athlete of the Week Honors

Sep 04, 2018

FOREST, Va. — The Old Dominion Athletic Conference released its Athletes of the Week on Tuesday for the week ending September 2, and Washington and Lee senior Samantha Yates (Birmingham, Ala./St. Paul's School) was named the Women’s Cross Country Runner of the Week, while senior goalkeeper Ariyel Yavalar (Baltimore, Md./Garrison Forest School) garnered the Field Hockey Athlete of the Week accolade.

Yates, competing in her first cross country race since the 2016 NCAA Championship, took fourth out of 94 runners at the 4k Virginia Tech Invitational on Friday. She was the top Division III performer at the meet, crossing the finish line in 14:43.50. The Blue and White took third as a team at the invite, and was the top Division III school at the competition.

Yavalar led the 20th-ranked field hockey team to a 1-1 week. She played 145 minutes for W&L, allowing just one goal for a 0.48 goals-against average. She also totaled 12 saves for a .923 save percentage.

Yavalar notched seven saves in a 1-0 overtime loss at Johns Hopkins on Friday, and then led the Generals to a 1-0 shutout victory over Kenyon on Sunday with five saves. With the shutout, she tied the W&L career record with 12. Courtney Harrison ’06 finished her four-year career with 12 shutouts.

The field hockey team plays a neutral-site contest against Vassar on Saturday at Christopher Newport at 1:00 pm, and the cross country team is next in action at the Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational on September 14.